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Adding brake fluid.

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by Stone, Feb 16, 2012.

  1. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Do you have to bleed the brakes before you put new fluid in the reservoir or will it be ok to mix.
     
  2. day7a1

    day7a1 Member

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    While you can, technically, just add new brake fluid to the reservoir, the wisdom of doing so is dependent on a few conditions:

    1. The brake fluid currently in the bike is <2 years old.
    2. The brake fluid currently in the bike is not saturated with moisture (dark in appearance).
    3. The brake fluid is of the same and correct type.
    4. The brake lines have not ingested air due to the low brake fluid condition.

    If 1-3 are the case, you need to completely renew your brake fluid. If 4 is the case then you are going to have to bleed it anyway, so the question is moot.

    Besides, even if you do "bleed" the brakes, you will still be mixing the brake fluids. The bleeding process is just to remove air from the lines.

    Ask if you need to know how to renew the brake fluid. It's not hard, but can be time consuming.
     
  3. Stone

    Stone Member

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    Is a special bleeder needed for this or can it be done with house hold tools.
     
  4. day7a1

    day7a1 Member

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    A standard METRIC tool set is all that should be required to bleed or renew the brake fluid...but a second person is required as well.

    If it's easier to buy a tool than to borrow a person, you can get a mity-vac type bleeder kit or a speed bleeder screw from various places.

    One common source of air in the line is near the reservoir itself, you may have to bleed the line from the banjo bolt, at least I did.

    I forgot to mention...if you have the stock brake lines you will NEED to replace them with either new rubber ones or new steel braided ones. Otherwise you will be expanding the old rubber lines rather than pushing the piston onto the brake disk!! Not very useful for stopping, that expanding brake line is.

    Which one(s) of the 4 reasons I listed is the case?
     
  5. TIMEtoRIDE

    TIMEtoRIDE Active Member

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    You simply, and carefully sop-up the fluid in the resivoir, 95%, by sticking a clean paper towel in there, without introducing an air bubble, or excess dust-debris-paper towel lint.

    Immediately re-fill with clean fluid and begin bleeding.
     
  6. bigfitz52

    bigfitz52 Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    I use my "garage-duty" turkey-baster for such antics.
     
  7. TIMEtoRIDE

    TIMEtoRIDE Active Member

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    But then, how do you wipe out the scummy, nasty film inside the resivoir chamber (without the wetted-down paper towel) - - remember Mr Fitz, I speak from my own experience in a 97% humidity environment. From a brake fluid point-of-view, it's HELL down here :twisted:
     
  8. bigfitz52

    bigfitz52 Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    Yeah, I forgot it's like Michigan in the summer there except all year around. My sisters live in Gainesville.

    Wiping=good if it's that yucky. ("Yucky", "flappy thing", "fuzzy" what is happening to us...aaaaaaaaaaa)

    *Tip* My personal favorite shop towels are the Scott Extreme blue towels with the "knit" texture; but they only sell them through Home Depot. Complicated by the fact that a lot of HD stores don't realize there are two "styles" (the fuzzy blue ones suck by comparison) they can be interesting to find sometimes.
     
  9. TIMEtoRIDE

    TIMEtoRIDE Active Member

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    And BTW - what happened to DOT 5.1 SYNTHETIC brake fluid that was commonly available just 8 years ago, and I can't find any now.

    If your fluid is 3 years old, plan on a complete flush (for those who don't know better).
     
  10. day7a1

    day7a1 Member

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    You can find it online if you want too...but I never even heard of it until you mentioned it...doesn't seem to be used much.
     

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